12' Mini dual monitor setup, HiDPI, scaling and resolution help needed

[wwohl]

Hello everyone,

Heres the specs on the machine im running.


Im attempting to add a second monitor to the setup. I have a 27" Sceptre 4k monitor that has x2 HDMI for 4k up to 60hz and DisplayPort inputs. Also using a 23" Acer 1080 panel that will be in portrait mode next to this one. The 27inch 4k monitor is plugged in via Display Port, the 1080 23 inch monitor is plugged in via HDMI

Im aware that the max resolution for the Mac mini is 2560x1600 (capable of two displays). I never intended to run this at 4k, just trying to get the best resolution I can and scale the icons and text appropriately.

I purchased the 4k monitor because I also have a new MBP that can occasionally run from it

So heres where Im at... Im aware that HiDPI is disabled for 3rd party monitors in the newer revisions of OSX. I have disabled SIP and confirmed that it is disabled
I have run the command to activated HiDPI
In the Mac Display System preference pane, I get a number of options for resolutions:
1080p, 1080i, 720p. 480p,
3840x2160 (low resolution)
1920x1080
1600x900 (low resolution)
1344x1008 (low resolution)
1344x756 (low resolution)
1280x960 (low resolution)
1024x768 (low resolution)
1024x576 (low resolution)
960x540
960x540 (interlaced)
800x600 (low resolution)
800x450
720x576 (low resolution)
640x480 (low resolution)

The default for display option gives me a crisp image at 1920x1080. My second monitor is running fine at the same resolution.

I can select 3840x2160 and get a perfect image. However, I have no access to the scaling features in OSX. I cant seem to get OSX to enable the content scaling features that normally pop up for HiDPI high res monitors. So everything is ultra tiny. The screen looks beautiful, but even the menu bar across the top is almost too small to click. Ill attach a screen shot of both resolutions below

I also picked up SwitchResX on a trial period. It shows HiDPI options and they work, but that doesn't change my ability to scale content. I attempted to make a called 2560x1600 and its blurry everywhere. SwitchResX isn't doing anything to help me thus far

I did test the new 4k monitor with my 2017 MBP and it runs it in 4k and offers the content scaling options im looking for right through the OSX

Any help is greatly appreciated

Bill

1920x1080:

3840x2160:

 

[wwohl]

Just noticed if I plug in with HDMI to the HDMI 2.0 port I get some low resolution options for HiDPI (sub 1080 options). Either way, HiDPI is showing up in the OSX sys preferences when holding option. Thats a start. Im currently connected via DP

 

[butterburger cookybutter]

I also picked up SwitchResX on a trial period. It shows HiDPI options and they work, but that doesn't change my ability to scale content. I attempted to make a called 2560x1600 and its blurry everywhere.

Hmm, will you please say more about 'blurry everywhere'? Try to save a screenshot of blurry 2560×1600. Revert to a good display mode and view that screenshot; is it blurry?

You might try manually adding custom/override display modes. I know of three guides:
'Scale 1680x1050 on rMB without an app' by thadoggfather
'Adding/Using HiDPI custom resolutions' by RehabMan on tonymacx86.com Forum
'howto add particular custom display resolution choices (and HiDPI)'

 

[wwohl]

Pulled the monitor raw data. The resolution for 2560x1440 isn't listed, does that mean the monitor doesn't support it and thats why I've been having issues?

In other news, my new issue is the monitor doesn't wake from sleep properly in the thunderbolt array. Its plugged into an OWC Thunderbay 4 with MiniDP to DP cable. Replaced the TB2 cable from the mini to the array and the miniDP to the monitor with no success. Monitor doesn't show a signal when waking from sleep. My other HDMI connected monitor wakes right up. When the monitors plugged directly into the Mac it works fine. Something in the daisy chain isn't waking it properly

Rolling my eyes, always something


EDID report generated by SwitchResX Version 4.7.2 (x64) for display U27

-----------------------------------------------------
------------------- MAIN EDID BLOCK -----------------
-----------------------------------------------------

EDID Version........1.4
Manufacturer........SPT (4E14)
Product ID..........2751 (0ABF)
Serial Number.......00000000

Manufactured........Week 17 of year 2017
Gamma...............2.20

Display Supported Features:
---------------------------
Power Management: Active off
Power Management: Suspend
Power Management: Standby


Display type:
-------------
RGB 4:4:4 & YCrCb 4:4:4 & YCrCb 4:2:2 Color Encoding Formats
Display is non continuous frequency
Default color space is not sRGB standard
Preferred timing mode includes Native Pixel Format


Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Digital Input
8 Bits per Primary Color
DisplayPort interface


Color info:
-----------
Red x = 0.636 Green x = 0.290 Blue x = 0.143 White x = 0.313
Red y = 0.349 Green y = 0.589 Blue y = 0.080 White y = 0.329

Established Timings:
--------------------
720 × 400 @ 70Hz
640 × 480 @ 60Hz
800 × 600 @ 56Hz
800 × 600 @ 60Hz
1024 × 768 @ 60Hz

Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------

Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------
#0: 1920 × 1080 @ 60Hz (D1C0)
#1: 1680 × 1050 @ 60Hz (B300)
#2: 1280 × 800 @ 60Hz (8100)
#3: 1280 × 1024 @ 60Hz (8180)
#4: 1280 × 960 @ 60Hz (8140)
#5: 1280 × 720 @ 60Hz (81C0)

Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 - Timing definition:
Mode = 3840 × 2160 @ 59.997Hz
Pixel Clock............. 533.25 MHz Non-Interlaced

Horizontal Vertical
Active.................. 3840 pixels 2160 lines
Front Porch............. 48 pixels 54 lines
Sync Width.............. 32 pixels 5 lines
Back Porch.............. 80 pixels 3 lines
Blanking................ 160 pixels 62 lines
Total................... 4000 pixels 2222 lines
Scan Rate............... 133.312 kHz 59.997 Hz

Image Size.............. 600 mm 340 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines

Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Descriptor #1 - Timing definition:
Mode = 3840 × 2160 @ 30.000Hz
Pixel Clock............. 266.64 MHz Non-Interlaced

Horizontal Vertical
Active.................. 3840 pixels 2160 lines
Front Porch............. 8 pixels 54 lines
Sync Width.............. 144 pixels 5 lines
Back Porch.............. 8 pixels 3 lines
Blanking................ 160 pixels 62 lines
Total................... 4000 pixels 2222 lines
Scan Rate............... 66.660 kHz 30.000 Hz

Image Size.............. 600 mm 340 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines

Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Descriptor #2 - Monitor limits:
Horizontal frequency range.......30-160 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........23-80 Hz
Maximum bandwidth range..........600 MHz
Range Limits Only

Descriptor #3 - Monitor name:
U27


-----------------------------------------------------
------------ EXTENSION EDID BLOCK 1 ---------------
-----------------------------------------------------

CTA-EXT: CTA 861 Series Extension:
----------------------------------
Revision:...........................3
First DTD block at offset...........36
Display Supports:
Basic audio
YCbCr 4:4:4
YCbCr 4:2:2

Data Block Collection #1
Video Type: standard CTA Timings
1): ( 16) 1920 × 1080p @ 59.94/60Hz - 16:9 - '1080p' (is native)
2): ( 5) 1920 × 1080i @ 59.94/60Hz - 16:9 - '1080i'
3): ( 4) 1280 × 720p @ 59.94/60Hz - 16:9 - '720p'
4): ( 3) 720 × 480p @ 59.94/60Hz - 16:9 - '480pH'
5): ( 7) 720(1440) × 480i @ 59.94/60Hz - 16:9 - '480iH'
6): ( 2) 720 × 480p @ 59.94/60Hz - 4:3 - '480p'
7): ( 6) 720(1440) × 480i @ 59.94/60Hz - 4:3 - '480i'
8): ( 1) 640 × 480p @ 59.94/60Hz - 4:3 - 'DMT0659'
9): ( 31) 1920 × 1080p @ 50Hz - 16:9 - '1080p50'
10): ( 20) 1920 × 1080i @ 50Hz - 16:9 - '1080i25'
11): ( 19) 1280 × 720p @ 50Hz - 16:9 - '720p50'
12): ( 18) 720 × 576p @ 50Hz - 16:9 - '576pH'
13): ( 22) 720(1440) × 576i @ 50Hz - 16:9 - '576iH'
14): ( 17) 720 × 576p @ 50Hz - 4:3 - '576p'
15): ( 21) 720(1440) × 576i @ 50Hz - 4:3 - '576i'
16): ( 32) 1920 × 1080p @ 23.98/24Hz - 16:9 - '1080p24'

Data Block Collection #2
Audio Type Block
Supported format: Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM), on 2 channels
Supported freq: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz
Supported samples: 16 bit, 20 bit


Data Block Collection #3
Vendor specific Data Block - Vendor Identifier: 00:0C:03
Found HDMI IEEE Registration Identifier
CEC physical address........... 1.0.0.0
Supports AI (ACP, ISRC)........ No
Supports 48bpp color depth..... No
Supports 36bpp color depth..... No
Supports 30bpp color depth..... No
Supports YCbCr 4:4:4........... No
Supports dual-link DVI......... No
Maximum TMDS clock............. 600 MHz
HDMI video capabilities........ Yes
Supports 3D.................... No

Data Block Collection #4
Speaker allocation data block
Speaker map:
FL/FR - Front Left/Right

Detailed Timing Blocks - 1 is native
Detailed Timing Block #1 - Timing definition:
Mode = 1280 × 720 @ 60.000Hz
Pixel Clock............. 74.25 MHz Non-Interlaced

Horizontal Vertical
Active.................. 1280 pixels 720 lines
Front Porch............. 110 pixels 5 lines
Sync Width.............. 40 pixels 5 lines
Back Porch.............. 220 pixels 20 lines
Blanking................ 370 pixels 30 lines
Total................... 1650 pixels 750 lines
Scan Rate............... 45.000 kHz 60.000 Hz

Image Size.............. 708 mm 398 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines

Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Detailed Timing Block #2 - Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 × 540 @ 60.053Hz
Pixel Clock............. 74.25 MHz Interlaced

Horizontal Vertical
Active.................. 1920 pixels 540 lines
Front Porch............. 88 pixels 2 lines
Sync Width.............. 44 pixels 5 lines
Back Porch.............. 148 pixels 15 lines
Blanking................ 280 pixels 22 lines
Total................... 2200 pixels 562 lines
Scan Rate............... 33.750 kHz 60.053 Hz

Image Size.............. 708 mm 398 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines

Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Detailed Timing Block #3 - Timing definition:
Mode = 720 × 480 @ 59.940Hz
Pixel Clock............. 27.00 MHz Non-Interlaced

Horizontal Vertical
Active.................. 720 pixels 480 lines
Front Porch............. 16 pixels 9 lines
Sync Width.............. 62 pixels 6 lines
Back Porch.............. 60 pixels 30 lines
Blanking................ 138 pixels 45 lines
Total................... 858 pixels 525 lines
Scan Rate............... 31.469 kHz 59.940 Hz

Image Size.............. 531 mm 398 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines

Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Negative horizontal polarity

 

[California]

I don't think it's thunderbolt 2.0 on these minis? Maybe that's the issue.

 

[wwohl]

I don't think it's thunderbolt 2.0 on these minis? Maybe that's the issue.

Nah it is..

A few things I figured out. The ThunderBay has a lot of limitations on its Thunderbolt ports which may have something to do with it (basically they say its only designed to work with other ThunderBays). Ive considered picking up a Thunderbolt 2 dock to use to pull the video off of at the first connection and have the ThunderBay still pulled in.
Ive also discovered that powering down the second monitor thats connected to HDMI seems to fix the problem. The Mac mini is seeing that monitor first at startup (probably because the main monitor is connected through the Thunderbay enclosure and it has to wake up first).

So essentially if the DP (ThunderBay daisy chained) monitor is connected direct to the Mac or if I power down the HDMI connected monitor, the sleep and wake functions work fine. Its only when both monitors are connected and on that the DP monitor doesn't wake properly when connected through the ThunderBay drive. When it wakes from sleep the Mac thinks its there, and my second monitor only shows half my desktop because it thinks there are two monitors, but the DP monitor remains dark and searching for signal. Its weird

As far as the resolution goes, Ive been using it in 4k mode scaled to 1080 content via the OS display preferences. Even with outside software, the 2560x1440 resolution was giving me some issues with refresh rates, even set at 30fps. Ill continue to play with it, but haven't found a solution yet.